Retail: It's not for everyone, and definitely not for me.

I got a job at World Market at my husband's urging, and because I like World Market and thought it might be fun. I was very, very wrong.

One of the things that I struggle with most in life is disappointing other people- strangers, friends and family alike. It doesn't matter if I know for a fact that I will never see a person again in my life, I take it very personally if they are disappointed in a situation and I can't do anything about it. I definitely know a thing or two about disappointing people, since I used to do it professionally at UT. I have told people that they are not going to graduate college because they didn't pass their last class, or because they didn't pay a stupid $25 fee, or because they took the wrong course. I have watched students struggle for years to finish one last degree requirement as life throws roadblock after roadblock in their way. I've had to tell people to their face that the thing they just spent the last few years of their life on doesn't amount to anything because they waited too long to take a state examination and are now ineligible. In doing all that I was often questioned and sometimes treated badly, but I was never personally attacked, belittled, or bullied, and the students largely handled these massive disappointments with grace and poise.

I think this is why I have such a problem working retail. I have seen customers go absolutely ballistic because they need 25 of a particular place setting, and we only have 24. To date, I've been called a stupid kid, an idiot, and a liar (yes, really), over what I consider to be very, very trivial issues. People ask for discounts because it's inconvenient for them to come to my store and buy something (yes, really). I've been yelled at on the phone more times than I care to remember. Do you have any idea how jarring it is to answer a phone and be the recipient of a carefully planned and mentally rehearsed tirade, and how frustrating it is to then try everything you can to fix the situation knowing that nothing you do is going to make the person on the other end any happier? I once had a man on the phone demand that I give him free floor cushions because he couldn't put his table together correctly and had to sit on the floor to eat (yes, really).

And this doesn't even begin to cover what a poisonous atmosphere the corporate world condones and even facilitates. I've had an employee with a notorious disdain for authority tell me that I was stupid, that I didn't know how to do my job, and that she wasn't going to do what I asked her to do, which was sweep the floor. She then gave me the silent treatment for a week, never did a thing that she was asked to do, talked about what a horrible manager I was to other employees, all because I asked her to sweep the floor at the end of the night. A series of phone calls with HR ensued, I was "coached" on how to deal with rebellious employees, her hand was slapped, and she was required to write an apology (not to me) for not "voicing her conservations appropriately" (yes, really). The best part of all this is that she has done this exact same thing to other people, the only difference in my case was that she never made me cry. One of my favorite employees, someone who has worked at this store for longer than the general manager, was fired for "negligence and insubordination", which means that he didn't get enough email sign-ups from customers. Yes, really. My boss once called me and gave me a list of things to do 2 hours before closing (because she had forgotten to tell me earlier in the day), and asked me the next day why I "chose to ignore what she asked me to do" when I didn't finish it all. I use words like 'focus' and 'drive' and concoct disgusting statements that don't actually say anything like, "Thank you for your continued focus on this critical initiative" and, "We are bases loaded and ready for a GRAND SLAM weekend".

This turned into a lot more of a rant than I meant for it to be, but I can summarize it in a few words: people are basically all jerks.